HE WAS an enigma wrapped in an enigma who first flattered to deceive at Goodison Park, and then supremely dazzled for one great season – but was Thomas Gravesen better than Wayne Rooney?

According to Tony Hibbert, who has seen more than his fair share of talented players come and go from Everton throughout his 10-year stay, he was.

While the right-back was too polite to name the worst in an interview this week, it was his nomination for the best that is likely to raise eyebrows.

“People will think Wayne Rooney was the most talented I’ve played with – and he could pull a volley out of nothing and put it in the top corner from 40 yards like he did against Arsenal,” said Hibbert.

“But ability-wise, Thomas Gravesen was the best. For passing and skills, he was different class.”

Evertonians who watched Gravesen play a starring central midfield role in Everton’s rise toward the top of the 2004-05 Premier League table, can agree he was a class act.

But the best of the last 10 years?

It certainly gives pause for thought when someone who has been at the club all of his career delivers that plaudit.

Everton’s younger current crop of players point to Louis The King Saha or Mikel Arteta as the main men with the skills on the training pitch – but Hibbert may well be onto something with his nomination for the Dane.

He is certainly not the first to recognise the former Hamburg, Real Madrid and Celtic star’s ability.

Gravesen famously caught the eye of Real coach Vanderlei Luxemburgo and sporting director Arrigo Sacchi after his outstanding season in royal blue, and consequently made the most surprising of his various moves.

Then despite being deployed in a defensive midfield role (contrary to the position where he had just led Everton to a fourth-place Premier League finish), he somehow made his Madrid move a qualified success.

Despite Luxemburgo being sacked, Gravesen won over newcomer López Caro who picked him regularly in the holding role.

Even England boss Fabio Capello. who went on to coach him at Madrid, was full of praise, once saying: “He has been playing very well in front of the Madrid defence and is also very effective at helping build their attacks.

“He is turning into a very important player for them, as Madrid had problems in that position before he arrived.

“They were all over the place there. Now, with his arrival, there is more balance to the team.”

It was a theme Capello warmed to after he took control at the Bernabeu, when he defended the man dubbed Mad Dog in the face of an outraged Spanish media following a scuffle in training sparked by a hard tackle by Gravesen on team-mate Robinho.

Capello said: “The way he is, we won’t have problems with him. He’s just a little bit particular. I don’t mess with him, he works well tactically.

“His behaviour is like this, and I don’t like it, everything has to be done like he wants it to be done”.

Capello was not the only one to “not mess with” the Dane who, by all accounts, could occasionally do a passable impression of someone with more than a few screws loose.

Anyone who has met Gravesen on one of his frequent visits to Goodison can attest for quite the opposite – he is warm, affable and genuine with his affection for the Blues. But there was a certain look which could cross his eyes that chilled the blood.

Maybe it’s that no-nonsense combination of blood and thunder, with a wonderfully deft range of passing that made such an impression on teak-tough Hibbert.

It certainly made an impression of legendary hard man Iron Mike Tyson, who asked for Gravesen’s shirt after watching him help Denmark thrash Iceland 6-0 in a 2002 World Cup qualifier.

One internet opinion piece colourfully summed up his departure in 2005: “Who on earth will now replace the mad, fist-waving, eye-bulging loon in Moyes’s tightly-bonded team?”